Arts Bombast: ArtPadSF
Last week, I attended ArtPadSF, and It. Was. Fabulous. Rather than bore you with descriptions of all the beautiful people, ingenious art, and poolside whiskey that I consumed, I’d like to highlight my three favorite galleries that I (re)discovered, and strongly suggest that you check them out for yourself.
1. Queen’s Nails (San Francisco)
Queen’s Nails is a small gallery on Mission St., just past Cesar Chavez. I used to pass by it nearly every day, due to its proximity to my old house and some of my favorite bars, but alas, it was never open. There was about a week-long span where it just looked like a deserted white box, full of slowly deflating balloons. Well, I still haven’t been to the space, but I finally had a chance to learn more about the gallery at ArtPad. Um, you see the flames below? It’s part of the Sell Your Debt exhibition. Obviously I’m on board.
[Claire Fontaine collective, America (Burnt/Unburnt), 2011.]
[Jason Kalogiros, Untitled Watch Ad, 2013.]
2. Jancar Projects (Los Angeles)
This was my “YES” moment at ArtPad. After strolling through about a dozen galleries that made me say, “Meh, pretty. Looks like everything else.” Jancar Projects reminded me why I go to events like this. Despite sort of hating the gallery world / model for exhibition, every object in that goddamn room affected me.
Confession: I wanted so badly to moved by works from emerging artists, but it turned out to be Jancar’s works from the (you guessed it) 1970s that amazed me, assaulted me, and drew me in. That said, even their more recent works metaphorically destroyed most of the art that I say in other galleries. I’m absolutely going to be checking them out more, and using them as a resource for discovering new favorite artists. Jancar Gallery is located in LA’s Chinatown, not far from MOCA, actually. Road trip, anyone?
[Ilene Segalove, Close But No Cigar, 1975.]
[Hildegarde Duane, 7 SNOW WHITES-“Fierce Fashion” photograph 1/1, 1982]
3. Unspeakable Projects (San Francisco)
San Francisco’s Unspeakable Projects was totally new to me. The gallery represents newly emerging artists working in video, installation, painting, drawing and performance. They’re not open more than, like, 6 hours a week (unless of course you’re a serious art-buyer making an appointment), but it’s worth seizing one of those hours to check out the exhibitions in their SOMA space.
[Matt Momchilov, Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall (Portrait of Jason as Milijenko Parserisas Bukovic), 2011]
[AMTK, Inside and Outside, 2012.]
I know, right?
Have a not-terrible weekend, kids. Carnaval is Saturday and Sunday in the Mission, and Saturday night 10pm-midnight marks my glorious return to the airwaves with Ribbon Around a Bomb radio on Radio Valencia. Arrested Development on Sunday is also a thing.
Ribbon Around A Bomb 
Road trip? Ooh, ooh, me! I’d totes go on a road trip with you!
Nice art as usual. I need to get out more and see new things like this. The only place I ever go is Tesco.
Ha, I had to look up what Tesco was. And yes, get out to California!
Hmm, Tesco must be more avant-garde than I thought. o.O Yay, California! Sounds groovy. 😀
My mind is semi-blown: is that burning US a one-shot action-packed display or is it a kind of static photo on display? As photographed, it seems kind of dangerous, not as in its-going-to-hurt-me, but more like that’s-not-in-the-standard-issue-rulebook.
Close But No Cigar looks so much like a few frames from one of those European surrealist movies.
Reblogged this on dead beat poet and commented:
Did you ArtPad?